By now, you should have assigned and graded several informal assessments. How have you been using the results of these assessments to improve how you teach and what students learn? What strategies has your CT suggested for providing students with guidance before they do the assignment to improve their performance? What about after the assignment?
The results of the informal assessment give me a base line to work from. Occasionally I need to go back over a topic using a different technique to either clarify the concept or to teach it all over again. In most cases I can use the past assignment as a baseline to build knowledge off of. By checking their comprehension using probing questions (just about every day) I am able to check their understanding of previous topics covered and reinforced specific concepts. My CT and I discussed using pictures/drawings on the board to reinforce verbal discussions. This way students can draw and write notes as well as having the topics hit different learner types (specifically verbal and visual learners). I had already been using probing questions and was also suggested that students could talk at their tables about question before answering to the whole class. This would provide the students with small group interactions, and a way to check their conception of ideas before hand. Also students are less likely to get tongue tied if they have just made a similar statement to a smaller group of peers. After the assignment is completed students have a chance to redo it (team policy) as many times as they wish for a better grade. By going over the assignments in class and discussing them, I can use mroe probing questions to gain a full understanding of where misconceptions came from, and if they have been overcome yet.
The results of the informal assessment give me a base line to work from. Occasionally I need to go back over a topic using a different technique to either clarify the concept or to teach it all over again. In most cases I can use the past assignment as a baseline to build knowledge off of. By checking their comprehension using probing questions (just about every day) I am able to check their understanding of previous topics covered and reinforced specific concepts. My CT and I discussed using pictures/drawings on the board to reinforce verbal discussions. This way students can draw and write notes as well as having the topics hit different learner types (specifically verbal and visual learners). I had already been using probing questions and was also suggested that students could talk at their tables about question before answering to the whole class. This would provide the students with small group interactions, and a way to check their conception of ideas before hand. Also students are less likely to get tongue tied if they have just made a similar statement to a smaller group of peers. After the assignment is completed students have a chance to redo it (team policy) as many times as they wish for a better grade. By going over the assignments in class and discussing them, I can use mroe probing questions to gain a full understanding of where misconceptions came from, and if they have been overcome yet.